Posted on 03/29/2015 9:07:05 PM PDT by MNDude
My dad grew up in San Francisco in the 1930s. When we went back and visited family, he drove like a madman up and down the hilly streets. I remember being in the back seat of the car, positive we were going off the edge and would land in the ocean!
In High School, I had nightmares about the husband of My favourite teacher finding out about she and I, and deciding to physically abase Me about the relationship. :) What can I say. If you were a normal teenage male you would understand about the attraction.
Bigfoot. I had a recurring dream that a group of them surrounded my house and would bang on the windows. I would always wake up when I heard a window break.
Walking through the same park in 1986.
I have a an unnatural fear of Marxist Mulattos. Regular Mulattos are fine with me. You know, like Halle Berry.
Thank goodness they don’t exist.
Oh wait.
Growing up in the Sixties, in the flight path of Offutt Air Force base, aka Strategic Air Command Headquarters, aka one of the prime target areas on the face of the planet, my biggest fear was Soviet nuclear missiles.
I truly did not think I would live long enough to grow up.
There are some things it’s good to be wrong about...
You must have freaked out watching Soylent Green.
Doesn't scare me at all now. But this one does:
Seeing photos of dead and dying Jews in Nazi death campus.
Being launched up into the air and falling from a great height
Being chased in the dark
School
Certain types of dolls. That they would come to life while I was sleeping. My Dad brought me a doll from Korea that scared the crap out of me. I’d put it in the closet at night so it wouldn’t watch me. Worrying about the closet door opening was preferable to the doll being visible. Wayyy before Chuckie.
I had several, but there were 2 that stand out most:
1. Going to sleep. No, seriously, falling asleep scared me. I always had this sneaking feeling like I wasn’t going to wake up.
At the age of 26 I was diagnosed with a mild case of central sleep apnea, which might explain the fear. With central sleep anea, your body just stops breathing, but without the obstruction that comes with obstructive sleep apnea (the more common one).
I knew there were times I would realize, in my sleep, that I wasn’t breathing and I didn’t know why. It took a lot of effort sometimes to force myself awake enough to inhale. Scary enough when it happens now as a grown-up, but downright terrifying as a kid!
(And when I tried to tell my doctor as a kid, she said I was imagining things.)
2. “Something” in the dark. Not the dark itself, I was fine with that. But sometimes I’d get the feeling that there was something else in the room with me. Something evil. Something horrible. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Actually, this one followed me into adulthood. And Doctor Who certainly didn’t help! I sometimes have my stuffed animals “keeping watch” over the corners of the room I can’t see. Silly? Yes. But in the middle of the night, when instincts overpower reason, sometimes the silly solutions are the ones that work.
I couldn’t stand next to my bed because I thought the monster would grab me by the ankles and pull me under. So I’d make a running jump into bed every night.
Being under water as in a swimming pool.I loved being in a pool,just not under the water. I would freak out when my older brother would grab me and take me under.
My early life was perfect! Poor, happy, rancher, farmer, oil field worker, no problems till 1956 when a disaster hit our family when I was 9 years old. Then everything changed, it is like your life being placed on a billiard table, hit by the Q ball, and suddenly spun out of control!
My parents changed. They looked like my parents but were “different”. Alcoholism and religious fanaticism set in. We were no longer allowed to associate with anyone. No TV, no movies, if it was fun, “NO!” no associating with other school kids. We seemed to be on the run from something pursuing us.
We learned if we wanted to do something with neighbors the answer was “NO”. We grew up without friends as no sooner than we made them than we suddenly were moving to a new location.
I often had dreams of my mom being a different person who looked like my mom but was EVIL and had no right hand.
In the mornings I would greet my mom and make sure she had a right hand!
I later found out that my mom and dad had personal DEMONS ( I choose not to talk about) chasing them we kids knew nothing about, and no matter how far we ran it always caught up with us!
This feeling was so enforced in us so strong during our teen years even four years of the military for me could not purge them from me.
We always were looking over our shoulder to see if “something” was following us.
Then by 1973, with the help of a bible oriented preacher, I had managed to dump the last (I hope) of those fears.
I wish my brother and sister had found this freedom. After 59 years the demons of those days still haunt them.
Nuns. I had nightmares about them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.